How to boot to USB in Asus X205ta notebook?

Booting, installing, newbie
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thesun
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Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

How to boot to USB in Asus X205ta notebook?

#1 Post by thesun »

I have a new ASUS notebook x205ta with Windows 10 on it and after MUCH effort managed to get to the BIOS...only to find that instead of "hdd, usb, optical" or any options there's only one choice -- I've forgotten the exact wording but basically, there doesn't seem to be any way to tell it to look at my Puppy live-USB. In an older desktop with USB as the boot, the USB drive works fine and boots into Puppy great. But I am totally stumped here. I have gone through every option looking for anything close to adding USB as a boot...nothing seems workable.

So 1) is there a way to switch this to look for USB at boot?
And if not: What are my options for installing Puppy?

Thank you!

(Apologies in advance if this is a common issue -- I didn't find anything in searching for "can't boot to USB" that seemed right, most of that is just about selecting the BIOS. And I don't know what terms to search for. Spent about 2 hours last night trying to find a walk through and didn't get anywhere.)

cthisbear
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Location: Sydney Australia

#2 Post by cthisbear »

thesun...Welcome to Puppy.

"""""""

https://craftedflash.com/howto-video/ho ... lash-drive

Youtube video >>
How to Boot Asus Eee PC Netbook from USB Flash Drive

"""""""

https://askubuntu.com/questions/551320/ ... sus-x205ta

I got Ubuntu to boot without much effort.

Make a bootable usb stick of Ubuntu 14.10.
Use Rufus(Windows) or Startup Disk Creator(Ubuntu).

Copy this file (bootia32.efi) to /EFI/BOOT directory on the usb stick.

Turn Secure Boot off in the BIOS.

Boot from the usb stick.

::::::::

https://github.com/lopaka/instructions/ ... -x205ta.md

BIOS

press F2 before boot to get into BIOS.

Under Security

set Secure Boot Control to >> Disabled

Under Advanced

set USB Controller Select to EHCI >>
Save Changes and Exit

"""""""""""''

The X205TA is a mixed mode EFI system
(i.e. a 64-bit CPU combined with a 32-bit EFI) without any legacy BIOS mode.

By default, the Jessie i386 installer images should boot on this machine via UEFI
and let you install a complete 32-bit (i386) system.

If you use the multi-arch amd64/i386 netinst or DVD image,
you will also be able to install in 64-bit mode.
You might expect slightly better performance that way, but the limited memory
on the machine (2 GiB) will become more of an issue.

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Asus/X205TA

"""""""""""""

Also my posts...problem usbs.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 925#773925

Probably some of the same....

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 551#767551

Chris.

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Thank you!

#3 Post by thesun »

@Chris, thank you so much for the detailed help here. I won't be able to try any of this until tonight but just knowing that there's HOPE makes a huge difference.

I wasn't sure that mixing two questions in one discussion thread was kosher, hence the splitting up of them. And I'm not new to Puppy -- I've used a 5.x version for years on a system that had a hard drive failure...I took out the drive entirely, it's super fast, super quiet, and I've loved it.

For Quirky install to USB, I had been running the install from an optical .iso. You're saying that what I should do is install to my hard disk instead first, then run Quirky installer to install from the hard disk (where there will be space to unpack) to the usb flash drive? Yes?

That sounds simple enough but will I run into issues with Quirky overwriting my current (Fedora) system? I like running Puppy off a USB, without any footprint on the actual hard drive. Would I be able to get around this by running an optical .iso on a DVD+RW disc instead of the hard drive? Could Quirky write and unpack it there, then burn to USB flash and I'd be good to go?

Thank you again for the detailed help. Can't wait to get home and try it!!!

:-)

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Alas, that didn't work

#4 Post by thesun »

So I am stumped. I did change the boot to EHCI, Boot Security is disabled, but the only option for booting in the Boot Priorties window is "Boot Option #1 Windows Boot Manager."

I am very familiar with the stuff that's in the video, having booted from USB and changed the bios many times. The problem is that in this case there doesn't seem to be ANY option for a USB boot. Just one listing, "Windows Boot Manager" which goes right into Windows.

Any other help anyone can suggest?

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don570
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Location: Ontario

#5 Post by don570 »

Barry Kauler wrote a page on how to boot a modern laptop
UEFI booting:
http://bkhome.org/quirky/uefi.htm
________________________________________

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bigpup
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#6 Post by bigpup »

On the X205TA,

Did You Do This?????
press F2 before boot to get into BIOS. Under Security, set 'Secure Boot Control' to Disabled Under Advanced, set 'USB Controller Select' to EHCI 'Save Changes and Exit'

Plug the USB stick into the X205TA, start the system, and continue to press F2 to get the BIOS. From there, go to Save & Exit tab, and under Boot Overrid select the USB flash drive.
From this topic:
https://github.com/lopaka/instructions/ ... -x205ta.md
Last edited by bigpup on Wed 11 Nov 2015, 14:54, edited 1 time in total.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
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thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Further along, but still have problems...

#7 Post by thesun »

Well, I've tried a bunch of things and gotten further along.

1. I don't know why but I couldn't use the Quirky installer on one of my systems, a Dell XPS8100. Part of the problem was that it seems like a chicken and egg thing to have to have a hard drive involved when you're installing from a CD-ROM to a USB drive.

2. But even when I added a few flash drives, it still failed. Just froze.

3. On my system upstairs, an ancient Dell Inspiron 520 or something, it installed. Ran through, said it was complete, etc.

4. And when I put THIS flash drive into my x205ta...joy of joys, a second boot option appeared in the BIOS!!! Yay!!!

5. However, my joy was short lived: it doesn't boot. I can choose the 2nd boot option, but nothing happens. It either spits me back to the F2 screen or else boots right into windows as usual. Wtf...

6. I tried a few other things: neither a brand new install of Ubuntu 14.01 nor an old 5.2 version of Puppy was recognized by the x205ta.

7. But neither would the new Quirky USB boot in any other system.

So I'm thinking perhaps I just have a bad USB drive or a bad install? Could I have chosen the wrong file in the install process? At one point it prompted me for a file...I chose Quirky 4.0.7.1.usfs.sh (not remembering exactly, but I tried to choose the one that was most up to date). Did I choose the wrong file?

Any tips at this point would be great. I think the main thing now is to get myself a working live-USB...any ideas what I did wrong in making this one?

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bigpup
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#8 Post by bigpup »

bigpup wrote:On the X205TA,

Did You Do This?????
press F2 before boot to get into BIOS. Under Security, set 'Secure Boot Control' to Disabled Under Advanced, set 'USB Controller Select' to EHCI 'Save Changes and Exit'

Plug the USB stick into the X205TA, start the system, and continue to press F2 to get the BIOS. From there, go to Save & Exit tab, and under Boot Overrid select the USB flash drive.
From this topic:
https://github.com/lopaka/instructions/ ... -x205ta.md
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Yep...I did.

#9 Post by thesun »

Yes, I did exactly that and everything worked except when I clicked the "boot from USB" in Save & Exit, it just booted into Windows 10 again. The OPTION was there but it didn't work, so I'm guessing (just a wild guess) that maybe the live-boot I downloaded wasn't correct for the system. Should I have tried 32 bit instead of 64? Should I have gone with the Werewolf option instead of Quirky? Also, it asked me if I wanted to format as F2F or something...which was recommended, so I chose that, but should I have done Ext4?

Is there a way I can analyze my boot disk to see what's on it? It doesn't seem to be viewable.

Again, any and all help would be fantastic!!!

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don570
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#10 Post by don570 »

If you are using Barry's scripts to install quirky or werewolf to a USB stick
and then trying to boot with that stick......

Here's some advice...


You should be running Precise Puppy 5.7.1 while running these install scripts
because of old utility issues


For example I tried the latest Slacko to run the install scripts thinking that
it would compatible and was disappointed. :cry:

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Hmmm...

#11 Post by thesun »

Will Precise Puppy have the UEFI option that I need to run on the x205ta?

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don570
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#12 Post by don570 »

No. Precise Puppy is was developed before Barry Kauler started to investigate UEFI.

I was referring to the installing of the OS on a USB stick. A script is usually
used.


Among Barry Kauler's puppies , only recent quirky and the new werewolf supports UEFI.
A few other distros found on the murga forum
also support UEFI like Fatdog

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

I need UEFI

#13 Post by thesun »

So that's my problem. I need UEFI. AND I need a live-USB...It was so easy and seamless when I installed 5.2 Puppy a couple of years ago. This time it's just been a nightmare. I started trying to do this 2 weeks ago in advance of a trip my wife is planning to take, to give her a secure way to check email and do online banking on net cafe computers, and to keep from using Windo$e on hers.

But she leaves in 2 days and I still don't have any kind of usable option for her.

Does anyone out there know if Barry's installer has worked? It certainly chugged away and SEEMED to be doing something, once I stopped trying to do it on my XPS computer. Everything looked right and it DID show up in the boot options. It just didn't boot.

Totally stumped. Still. :-)

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don570
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Location: Ontario

#14 Post by don570 »

Are you trying to install on a USB stick or have you made a partition
on your ASUS (which is easy to do)? I believe Barry's new installer script
supports both methods.

I use a USB stick with f2fs formatting which works well.

________________________________________________

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

USB

#15 Post by thesun »

As the title of the thread says, trying to boot to USB. :-)

So how did you create that USB stick you're using? Was it with Barry's installer?

A) I could have a faulty USB stick.
B) The file or F2F could be wrong
C) They Cybergods are punishing me

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bigpup
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#16 Post by bigpup »

Disabling secure boot should allow any Puppy to boot.
Secure boot is what requires UEFI compatible operating systems.
press F2 before boot to get into BIOS. Under Security, set 'Secure Boot Control' to Disabled Under Advanced, set 'USB Controller Select' to EHCI 'Save Changes and Exit'

Plug the USB stick into the X205TA, start the system, and continue to press F2 to get the BIOS. From there, go to Save & Exit tab, and under Boot Overrid select the USB flash drive.

From this topic:
https://github.com/lopaka/instructions/ ... -x205ta.md
Formatting the USB flash drive to fat32 is sometimes needed, because some computers just expect fat32 format for USB flash drives. They will not detect anything else for a format.

I would try Tahrpup 6.0.2 or Slacko 5.7.
In Windows you can install them by using a program like Unetbootin.

Unetbootin.
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Follow the directions for using an iso file you have already downloaded.
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/#other
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

thesun
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon 26 Sep 2011, 02:25

Secure Boot is disabled...

#17 Post by thesun »

Either I'm not getting it or else maybe people are just jumping in with tips without actually reading the thread? Secure Boot is disabled. A perfectly valid Ubuntu distro doesn't boot, presumably because it's not UEFI enabled.

The ONLY thing I've seen work on this x205ta is a Quirky UEFI USB disc -- when I hit F2, it did show up as an option. The problem was it didn't boot.

So I don't think I need to create an old puppy version. I'm using Linux on all systems except the x205ta. So a simple way to test whether this UEFI Quirky that I created is actually working would be great. I don't want to mess around creating something older because that probably WONT be recognized by UEFI.

If anyone has a working, UEFI-enabled, Quirky-or-higher USB stick that's working on a UEFI system, I'd love to know the steps you took to make that happen.

Thanks so much!!!

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don570
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#18 Post by don570 »

So how did you create that USB stick you're using? Was it with Barry's installer?
I've done it with two scripts successfully. You will have to use a computer
that can run puppy precise 5.7.1 or a 32 bit version of puptahr

You can use
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky ... quirky.x86

http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky ... o-drive.gz

I found installquirky.x86 confusing to use :cry: There was so many options :roll:

I prefer 4install-quirky-to-drive.gz

If you are doing the install from a 64 bit operating system you use
installquirky.amd

The install notes by Barry are important to read

http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky ... quirky.htm


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Last edited by don570 on Thu 12 Nov 2015, 19:38, edited 8 times in total.

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bigpup
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#19 Post by bigpup »

The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

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don570
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Joined: Wed 10 Mar 2010, 19:58
Location: Ontario

#20 Post by don570 »

French users have reported that puptahr 64bit ( if it is updated with the newest kernel)
will boot successfully on this machine



http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 6&start=15


http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=96748

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